CCR 199 H1 S REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Technology and its impact on my life.
Prathna Ramesh

Technology today plays a crucial role in our daily lives, affecting nearly every activity we perform. Everyone is in constant interaction with technology in some way or the other. The most significant impact of the rapid technological development can be seen in the evolution of electronic devices like computers, mobile phones, and other gadgets. The number of people using those devices is increasing by the minute and we witness a growing dependency towards the use of such gadgets. Technology however doesn’t just refer to electronic gadgets or the internet or machines, as people nowadays tend to falsely believe.

What is technology? According to the Merriam-Webster definition, ‘technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function’. People interact with interacting with various forms of technology, be it banking technology while withdrawing cash at the ATM, or educational technology while learning in high school.

My daily interaction with technology is boundless. From the minute I wake up each morning to the time I go back to bed at night, technology is making my life easier and comfortable. I am able to complete tasks efficiently without time wastage. As everyone does, I use the lamps and the air conditioner in my room, the taps and showers which provide water and toiletries. During the day I use writing stationery, calculators, and the furniture in classrooms, overhead projectors, my laptop, my music player and my cellphone. At the gym I use equipment like the treadmill, weights, and elliptical cycle. Clearly, there are a lot of different kinds of technology that I use in my life, but one technology that is absolutely invaluable, is my laptop.

I use my laptop a lot for emailing which is one of the cheapest and most convenient ways of communicating large amounts of information. I find that sending emails can be used for both professional and informal purposes.
On my laptop, I can also access the internet which allows me to do research for school, to keep in touch with friends through Facebook, to watch videos on YouTube, to Skype with my family, to update my resume on LinkedIn, to submit my assignments, or even to find out where the closest restaurant is. I also use my laptop for playing games, listening to music, watching movies, making excel sheets or documents.
It is evident that I am able to accomplish a lot more than I would if I did not have my laptop. For instance, if I could not book my air ticket online, I would be wasting a great deal of time going to the travel agency and purchasing them. The same thing applies to e-shopping, booking movie tickets online and making online restaurant reservations.
‘Technology is building bridges between people on opposite sides of the globe, but it is also building ever stronger walls between neighbors’. I feel that availability of technology has definitely changed me as an individual. For instance, it has greatly reduced my face to face interaction with people. A lot of the time, I email, or text message, or Facebook message people, rather than meeting up with them. There tends to be a lack of intimacy and personal touch. This I feel will lead to great problems in the long run. People suffer due to excessive ‘cyber-talk’. When such people are exposed to new people, they aren’t able to communicate efficiently due to lack of significant practice. This can greatly impact their lives in the future and prevent them from making friends, securing contacts, or even landing jobs.

Like most teenagers, I spend a lot of time watching movies or playing video games on my laptop during my free time. The time spent reading books is thus reduced greatly. Books, science fiction or classics are always great to read and are a great source of creativity and vocabulary. I find that I am losing out on the excellent benefits of reading due to this wide availability of technology.
As a result of technology, I feel that I am becoming lazier, as I don't feel the dire need to step outside of home to find entertainment and fun in things that used to be fun, such as meeting up with friends and playing a friendly game of basketball. Due to technology, now on my laptop I can talk to my friends and play virtual basketball at the same time. I also spend a lot of time browsing the internet doing research for school assignments and essays. As such, since nearly all the information I need is available on the internet, the habit of actually going to the library and searching through an Encyclopedia for the information is lost.

I do believe that without technology, I would be a different person and I would be leading a different life. I could assume that I would be a more social person, with more ‘people skills’, being able to engage in public conversation without hesitation or fear. During my free time, I wouldn’t be confined within the walls of my house; instead I would find time to go out, probably for some exercise or to meet people. My life style would probably be more active and productive.

If I think about how my parents and grandparents grew up without technology like cellphones, computers, televisions, air conditioners and the internet, I find it extremely hard to imagine. Owing to my immense dependence on technology I am at a loss as to how they managed to accomplish so much. I learnt that due to the lack of distraction in the form of television, video games or cellphones, they spent a lot of time improving academically, developing useful skills and discovering existing talents.
Back in the days, the youth took to learning classical music or attended cultural classes, while nowadays teenagers spend a lot of their free time on their computers engrossed in a video game. Thus we see that instead of taking an interest in their respective cultures, time is spent unproductively and the rich culture is forgotten.

I feel that technology also significantly influences how we perceive the world via our senses, such as our vision, hearing, feeling, smell, or sense of touch. For instance, when we are mowing the lawn using a lawn mower, we automatically shave off the extra grass without paying heed to anything else. However, if we were to manually cut the grass, i.e. without the help of the lawn mower (technology) we may have noticed and been able to appreciate the tiny insects and earthworms creeping on the grass before cutting it. Thus technology here mars our vision.
With particular reference to the technology that I use on a daily basis, I find that listening to music calms me down, helps me feel much better and less stressed. I also find that exercising at the gym, helps me sweat all my toxins out, and not only helps me keep physically fit, but also boosts my energy and makes me feel alert.
I also find that watching too much of television, or sitting at the computer for too long harms my vision. Music that is extremely loud tends to cause headaches too.

Technology can also create or abolish hierarchies. Hierarchies are systems that are created depicting multiple classes of people. The internet, in a way abolishes hierarchies as people can access as much of information as they’d like off the internet, without anybody restricting them. A newspaper however is only permitted to publish a certain amount or quality of information. Thus the internet abolishes any discrimination of the distribution of information. On the other hand, the internet can be accessed on a computer which is accessible only to a select few who can afford it, thus creating hierarchies. Technologies such as air conditioners, automobiles, cellphones and music players can only be accessed by people who can afford it and thus distinguishes them from the ones who can’t, thus creating hierarchies.

I would like to conclude by saying that technology occupies a substantially large space in my life. It permits me to accomplish a large number of things in a short span of time. The real danger arises when I get so reliant on technology that I cease to do things myself, thus limiting my activity and interaction with the world around. In my essay I have described how technology helps us in our daily life but I must mention one thing that technology cannot do. It cannot help me love, feel passion, or emotion. Technology is great when it comes to completing a task quickly and efficiently, but when it comes to showing affection for your parents, or a friend, or even showing passion for a sport, technology plays no role. Inspite of all the tangible benefits we get from technology, I strongly feel that passion and love the most important thing we humans need in life.

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